Sadiq Khan appoints queer activist Amy Lamé as London’s Night Czar

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has appointed the city’s first ever Night Czar. Amy Lamé, a former Mayoress of Camden and co-founder of legendary queer London club night Duckie, is the individual tasked with turning the capital back into a thriving 24-hour city and what Khan has described as “a much-needed ambassador for the city after dark.”

Lamé, who is originally from New Jersey but moved to London in 1992, certainly knows a thing or two about pumping blood into the nighttime economy – Duckie will have been around for 21 years this December. The event was founded in 1995 at south London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern and Lamé, who is also a queer (and Labour) activist, has been at the forefront of the campaign to save its beloved Vauxhall home from developers.

The role will require Lamé to work closely with the police, Transport for London and the Night Time Commission, a collection of local planning and licensing authorities, club and venue owners to create her action plan for the city’s nightlife. She is also expected to hold a series of monthly “night surgeries” to meet businesses, workers, residents and revellers to shape her action plan, reports the Evening Standard.

Khan was prompted to appoint a Night Czar to address a wave of club closures in London in recent years, most notably Fabric, currently awaiting an appeal after shutting its doors in September. As Music Week reports, over the past five years around 50% of nightclubs and 40% of live music venues across the capital have been lost.